Hurricane Preparation and ResponseJohnson Space Center – 2018

Linda Spuler

JSC Emergency Manager

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Harvey Impacts to JSC

Risk Mitigation Strategies

Hurricane Response Overview

Harvey Response

Personal Preparedness

AGENDA

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• Hurricane Harvey impacted the Johnson Space Center main campus, Ellington Field, and Sonny Carter Training Facility for 5 days (August 25th-29th, 2017)

• 50mph winds • 43 inches of rain caused flooding and widespread infrastructure damage

• Average annual rainfall in Houston is ~50 inches, average monthly total is ~ 4 inches• During Harvey we experienced rain at the rate of 4 inches per hour

IMPACT SUMMARY

• Major to moderate impacts to Sonny Carter Training Facility (SCTF), Ellington Field (EFD), the 200 area, the 300 area, B30, B32, and 13 other buildings on JSC’s main campus. Building 265 will be demolished due to severe water damage

• Many other buildings and equipment impacted to a lesser degree

OVERVIEW OF HARVEY IMPACTS

Recorded Rainfall at B30

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DAMAGE MAP OVERVIEWJSC Main, SCTF, and EFD

Extensive Major Moderate Minor

Work Orders #

SCTF 91300 Area** 53

32 50200 Area** 45

E276 39350 Area 32

30 318 31

45 23400 Area 22

EFD Other 2120 19

265* 195 19

E135 187 184 16

21 1610 1544 1549 14

2 1410 13

325 1314 1217 12

37* 12Gilruth 10

JSC Other 100

Total 793

JSC Main

SCTF

EFD

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HURRICANE PREPARATIONS

Preventative measures to protect critical flight hardware, equipment, and facilities

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SONNY CARTER TRAINING FACILITYAerial View

NBL

LMF

SDIL

Retention pond overflowed and

flooded all sections of SCTF

Guard Shack was under 6’ of water

Roof leaks

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SONNY CARTER TRAINING FACILITYNeutral Buoyancy Lab, Logistics and Mockup Facility,

and Software Development and Integration Lab

• Houses key JSC Program facilities

• Entire facility flooded

• Extensive roof leaks causing elevator damage, mold growth, lighting damage, furniture & equipment damage

• Replace roof & guard shack

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BUILDING 30Mission Control Center

• Significant roof leaks causing water damage to floors, ceilings, and mold growth

• Needs roof replacement

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BUILDING 32Aerial View

B32 Roof

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• No significant impacts to James Webb Space Telescope testing

• Significant roof leaks causing water damage to floors, ceilings, and mold growth

• Water on electrical equipment

BUILDING 32Vacuum Chamber A, JWST Testing, & Labs

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ELLINGTON FIELDAircraft Operations, Hangers, and Offices

• Significant water and mold

• Roof leaks and damage to ceilings, walls, and floors/equipment

• Water in elevator

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• Roof leaks causing water damage to tile, mold, and equipment

BUILDING 8Photographic Technology Laboratory

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GUARD SHACKSJSC Main, SCTF, and EFD

• Significant flooding, water damage, mold damage, and roof leaks

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Environmental Overview:• Clean-up• Mold/Asbestos Mitigation• Mold/Asbestos Remediation• Asbestos Abatement

Major Impacted Buildings: 200 Area, 4, SCTF, EFD, and 30

Containment & Cleanup

Abatement/Remediation

On-Going Remediation

ENVIRONMENTAL

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RISK MITIGATION / HARDENING

Raised tunnel air intake

Flood gates outside B30

Flood doors on tunnel exhaust vents

Sealed doors in facilities throughout Center to protect mechanical rooms

All new facilities are rated to withstand 130mph winds

Past flood mitigation & hardening projects successfully prevented additional damage during Hurricane Harvey

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COD Preparedness Levels

Level 5 – AWARENESS (Jun-1 through Nov 30)

Level 4 – CONCERN (impact to JSC in ~72 hrs)

Level 3 – PREPARATION (impact in ~48 hrs)

Level 2 – CLOSURE (impact to JSC in ~36 hrs)

Level 1 – RIDEOUT

Assessment

Recovery

PLANNED HURRICANE REPONSE

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PREPAREDNESS CONSIDERATIONS

Concern to Prep….Weekend?

Holidays? Flex Days?

What are schools doing?

Storm speed, size, and track?

Prep to ClosureEmployees in mandatory

evacuation zones

Different personal needs, timeframes

Riding it Out• Systematic plant shut down (~ 6 hours)

• Hard shut down (minimum 3 day recovery)

• 2 hour emergency shut down of MCC

• Ride-out

• Depends on strength of storm

• 5 man security team

• 50 man recovery squad

• Merrill Center (Katy) contingency plan

• Away team to North Austin

Recovery• Safety

• Status of Community services & infrastructure

• STAY AWAY UNTIL RECALLED

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National Incident Management System Scalable

Common response protocol

Standardized communication

Incident Command System (ICS)Specialized team mobilizes for emergency and recovery

Does not follow organizational lines

Incident Commander (IC) changes with event phase

Incident Action Plan (IAP)Blueprint of response

NIMS/INCIDENT COMMAND

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jscsos.com Information geared to all employees in plain English

Can use @JSCSOS twitter to broadcast messages

Open/Closed Status of Center is posted

(some employees may still report to work when “JSC is Closed”)

EPR distribution listUsed to disseminate emergency information to orgs

Used to inform orgs of Center Ops timeline and level changes

Weather information for orgs to use to trigger their own plans

ENSEmergency notifications sent to all employees

Accountability check in survey sent to Civil Service only

COMMUNICATION

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jscsos.com

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SAMPLE OF EMAIL TO EPR

******************************************NOT A REAL MESSAGE – FOR EXAMPLE ONLY******************************************

Please forward to the appropriate people in your organization:

JSC Center Operations has declared Hurricane preparation Level 3 (Advanced Center Preparation) in anticipation of Hurricane Pretense

The current forecast and projected path show JSC at risk from Hurricane Pretense. Expected impact to JSC is in approximately 48

hours.

Hurricane Pretense is currently a Category 1 Hurricane with winds clocked at around 85 mph. Storm surge may reach 4-6 feet.

Level 3 preparations require all loose articles to be tied down or moved inside.

If your organization needs assistance with this task call the Work Control Center at x32038.

(Please utilize your own resources to move articles, and only rely on Work Control if you cannot move something safely.)

Employees should cover computers in plastic, move items off the floor and raise the blinds in their office.

Refer to the FMOD SOP for Hurricane Preparation for a full listing of Level 3 tasks.

If you have any questions regarding the SOP or related tasks, you can call the Communication Unit leader Ken Chevalier at x33177.

Configure all equipment and systems to minimize adverse effects from a loss of power, as cooling and power may intentionally or

inadvertently be shut down.

Remember storms are volatile and conditions may change rapidly. JSC management will continue to monitor the storm and send status

updates as necessary.

Weather forecasts and the latest advisory information are contained in a separate email you should receive from the Spaceflight

Meteorology Group via the JENS (from jsc-smg@nasa.gov) and posted on jscsos.com.

****************************************** NOT A REAL MESSAGE – FOR EXAMPLE ONLY ******************************************

To: JSC-DL-JSC-EPRFrom: Linda M. Spuler

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SAMPLE OF EMAIL TO EPR

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Telecom Schedule

1:00am National Hurricane Center interim advisory (new graph)4:00am NHC Advisory (new graph and discussion)7:00am NHC interim advisory (new graph)

8:00am Incident Management Team telecon (JA, IA, SMG, FOD)

Develop Incident Action Plan (IAP) for the day

10:00am NHC Advisory and Senior Staff telecon (publish IAP)

10:30am JLT telecon

1:00pm National Hurricane Center interim advisory (new graph)

3:30pm Incident Management Team telecon (JA, IA, SMG, FOD)

4:00pm NHC Advisory and Senior Staff telecon

4:30pm JLT telecon

7:00pm NHC interim advisory (new graph)

9:30pm Incident Management Team telecon (JA, IA, SMG, FOD)

10:00pm NHC Advisory and Senior Staff telecon

10:30pm JLT telecon

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HARVEY TIMELINE

Expected Impacts

from Harvey “10-

15 inches of rain may fall Friday through

Monday”

Impact to JSC

“expected to be

mainly rain”

Flash Flood Warning for

JSC

5” so far, 15” more possible

Situation Worsens at JSC…Closed

to Non Essential

Personnel

22” so far, 2-4 more possible

JSC Today Special: 31.66

inches of rain, 3-5

more today; 5-7

more tomorrow

All JSC sites remain

closed –Damage

Assessment Team

reports

42.6 inches at JSC so

far

FMs Report Announcing Center will re-open on

9/5

JSCRe-Opens

Recovery continues

Fri 8/25 Sat 8/26 Sun 8/27 Mon 8/28 Tue 8/29 TOTAL

JSC B30 1.80 7.24 20.72 10.22 3.01 42.99

Ellington

Field1.61 10.96 13.10 9.46 4.10 39.23

University

Green PWS1.90 8.88 18.29 11.06 3.55 43.68

Nassau Bay

FD PWS1.61 6.53 18.17 10.17 3.64 40.12

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ENS was not used as advertised

ENS Survey was not used for contractors

OPEN/CLOSE Notifications were not sent to employees

Hurricane Plan triggers were not met in this scenario

Preparation Levels were not declared

Away team did not deploy

Full Rideout Team was not in play

Mission Control remained at JSC

Need for redundancy and training exposed

Tropical Storm impacts are harder to predict

Flex Friday plays into decision making and communication

HARVEY RESPONSE

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NASA PERSONNEL IMPACTS

• All personnel accounted for• ~950 had significant damage to

their homes

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NASA PERSONNEL IMPACTS

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Agency wide systemMessages can be sent to all or specialized groupsAll PIV Badged employees get the message

Email, desk phone, cell phone, personal cell, home phone, home email, texts

Center closure notification (via email and text)HR check in survey (email and phone to Civil Servants )

Are you OK? Can you return to work?JSCSOS is not the ENS!

You can follow @JSCSOS on twitter to get textsYou do not need a twitter account to follow

ENS (Emergency Notification System)

Update Your Emergency Contact Info to Receive Messages!

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Emergency Contact Information

What am I updating? Emergency Contact InformationWhere can I find it? Personal Section of id.nasa.govWhen should I do it? Now! Why should I do it? To receive JSC emergency notifications How do I do it? Log into id.nasa.gov and click the edit button on your personal profile.

You may need help from a security officer or admin. (whoever placed your badge request)

Civil Servants will be rerouted to Employee Express www.employeeexpress.gov

Click here to log in.

Edit button will be enabled.

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ENS Tips

PIV badged with confidence level of 40 or above

Contact info pulled from id.nasa.gov

Calls come from an unknown number

615 area code

save as NASA Emergency after you get a call

You must say “Hello” to receive the message

Listen to the entire message

You may get the same message more than once Follow prompts from the system to avoid duplicate messages

Check in survey is no longer used for contractors

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Should I Stay or Should I Go?

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What to Consider

If officials recommend or order evacuation, Evacuate.

If you decide to stay, plan to be without

power

fire & ambulance services

hospitals

ATMs

grocery stores

schools

If you evacuate, don’t expect a quick returnCommunities may be closed to return

Debris and damage may make block routes

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What to Consider

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If You Go

Secure your home – take inventory

Take important papers with you:Insurance policies…DL (proof of residency)….birth certificate…marriage certificate…passport…SS Card…wills….deeds…stocks/bonds…photos…love letters…lotto tickets

Plan a route…and an alternate route

Have a POC in the safe zone

Pack an emergency kit for your carFoodWaterBlankets Medications

Don’t forget pets and their needs

Don’t forget kids and their needs

Plan for special needs (register with 211 if you need help)

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Road Closures

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If You Stay

Plan for power outageflashlights...lanterns…flash charges…batteries.... medication… food safety… generator…gas powered tools…can opener…ice

Plan for water outageLaundry…fill tubs and sinks…flush buckets…gallon per person and pet per day…Boil notices

Don’t Expect Help Don’t overextend yourselfDon’t forget pets/kids

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If You Stay

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If You Stay

We have already had our first 2018 storm

“Landfall” refers to the center, not the edge

Slow moving hurricanes produce more rainfall and can cause more damage from flooding than faster-moving, “more powerful” hurricanes.

Loss of power may mean loss of running water

Storm surge precedes the storm by as much as 24 hours

DON’T COME TO JSC UNLESS YOU ARE ASKED TO DO SO

A large hurricane can release the energy of 10 atomic bombs – every second

Leg injuries are common after a storm

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Things I Can do Today

Develop an evacuation plan

Have an insurance checkup:Standard homeowners’ insurance does not cover flooding.

Take inventory

Assemble your disaster supplies

Strengthen your home:Make repairsThe garage door is the most vulnerable part of the home. Consider storm shutters

Make a plan:Where to stayWhat to takeHow to protect what you leave behind

Know where your home’s water shut off valve is located

Named

StormsHurricanes

Major

Hurricanes

( Cat 3 +)

“Normal” Season 12 6 3

2017 17 10 6

Colorado State

2018 forecast14 7 3

NOAA / NWS

2018 forecast10-16 5-9 1-4

ATLANTIC OUTLOOK